Scientists taught monkeys the concept of money. Not long after, the first prostitute monkey appeared. The monkey who received money in exchange for sex then went on to buy a grape. In short, this article discusses a study titled: "How Basic Are Behavioral Biases? Evidence From Capuchin Monkey Trading Behavior." The research discusses the monkey's selfish desires (not unlike those of homo sapiens) that they tried to exploit and experiment with great success after teaching capuchin monkeys to buy grapes, apples and Jell-O. The economist wanted to study the incentives that motivated specimens to behave in a way, while the psychologist analyzed the behavior itself. Obviously a lot of the findings are applicable to humans. Thoughts?

In all seriousness though, that's pretty cool. I always find it amazing when you see the intelligence of animals. From the gray parrots, to that dog that had a vocabulary of over 500 words, and could be instructed to grab an object by name or by a picture of it.

I read the original academic paper that all of those popular press sites are citing. It was in JPE, which is a very solid economics journal. I would just like to see it in a psych or neurosci journal. If there data were better this could have been in Science.

Again, I don't mean to be snooty, but the New York Times Magazine isn't a refereed publication.

Scientists taught monkeys the concept of money. Not long after, the first prostitute monkey appeared. The monkey who received money in exchange for sex then went on to buy a grape. In short, this article discusses a study titled: "How Basic Are Behavioral Biases? Evidence From Capuchin Monkey Trading Behavior." The research discusses the monkey's selfish desires (not unlike those of homo sapiens) that they tried to exploit and experiment with great success after teaching capuchin monkeys to buy grapes, apples and Jell-O. The economist wanted to study the incentives that motivated specimens to behave in a way, while the psychologist analyzed the behavior itself. Obviously a lot of the findings are applicable to humans. Thoughts?

A grape for full sex? That's cheap even by monkey standards I would have thought. The other monkeys must think she's a right old slapper.

Now all they need to do is teach one of the monkeys that they can store all the other monkeys money in a safe-place, give coupons to represent it, have the coupons used as actual money, then print up as much as it wants for it's self. BAM--human civilization.

Hmm... well it's no secret that monkeys will trade meat/resources for sex. So if you trained them to see money as valuable, I don't see why they wouldn't use that for sex also. In short, they were already prostitutes :D

: : :Tulle: The fool, I purposely don't engage with you because you don't have proper command of the English language.
: :
: : The Fool: It's my English writing. Either way It's okay have a larger vocabulary then you, and a better grasp of language, and you're a woman.
:
: I'm just going to leave this precious struggle nugget right here.

At 3/14/2012 10:33:46 PM, Oryus wrote:Hmm... well it's no secret that monkeys will trade meat/resources for sex. So if you trained them to see money as valuable, I don't see why they wouldn't use that for sex also. In short, they were already prostitutes :D

At 3/14/2012 10:33:46 PM, Oryus wrote:Hmm... well it's no secret that monkeys will trade meat/resources for sex. So if you trained them to see money as valuable, I don't see why they wouldn't use that for sex also. In short, they were already prostitutes :D

: : :Tulle: The fool, I purposely don't engage with you because you don't have proper command of the English language.
: :
: : The Fool: It's my English writing. Either way It's okay have a larger vocabulary then you, and a better grasp of language, and you're a woman.
:
: I'm just going to leave this precious struggle nugget right here.